by Caleb Azumah Nelson
Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Small Worlds follows 18-year-old jazz musician Stephen as he navigates family, romance and the transition from teenage life to adulthood in Peckham. From Sixth Form to university then back in London, he considers filial duty, the meaning of community, his hyphenated Ghanaian identity and his professional ambitions.
The book explores the bubbles that the characters make for themselves, through art and love, within the big city, amongst the crowds, drowned out by the noise. It gorgeously, movingly articulates what it is to be from somewhere, to have left, to speak a borrowed tongue.
Small Worlds has bridges, choruses and refrains, and the low thrum of a heartbeat throughout. Music and dancing give tempo to the story’s otherwise contemplative tone – Stephen being the type of young person that that lives in his head a lot, that tends to feel nostalgic about things as they are currently happening to him, his joy often shown in the rear-view mirror.
It is a novel to be read in London, listening to the book’s playlist (scan the QR code inside the cover), walking along Rye Lane, snacking on plantain chips, then stopping for a meal at Persepolis on Peckham high street, before making your way to a jazz club or a house party with your mates.
(Review by Leti)